As usual, my apologies for your 56k bandwidth, this is a photo-heavy post. Also many thanks to the various online archives I have plundered for your enjoyment. Very special thanks to the Olympia Historical Society, http://olympiahistory.org/, where many of these photos were originally curated and posted, also thanks to http://www.jonesphotocollection.com/, and http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/ for making these photos available for us.

Let's start with a round of "name the familiar building." Try to guess before you scroll. No cheating!

note - this is a very photo-heavy essay, so please forgive the bandwidth. most images link to higher resolution versions.

I have been doing research based pretty heavily in the 20’s and 30’s as of late, and recently I stumbled across this very low-resolution photo of our local Bus Depot, in about 1920something.

no larger resolution available

You can barely see, but poking out of the garage are two very unique buses, of a style that was apparently only produced here in the Pacific Northwest.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of cool buses (yes buses are cool), I want to take a second to tell you about the state of the road system in the United States in this era. Check out this photo from 1912:

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